Lockheed Martin to furlough 3,000 employees

Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun

Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin said Friday that it will furlough about 3,000 employees across the company beginning Monday and warned that more workers would likely be sent home in later weeks if the federal government's partial shutdown continues.

Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the company could not say Friday afternoon how many Maryland workers are in that group, but the furlough "affects all our business areas across the country." Lockheed Martin employs about 7,500 people in the state.

Employees being furloughed include those who cannot work because the federal facility where they are assigned is closed, those whose projects await inspections by furloughed federal workers and employees whose contracts received a stop-work order from the government, the company said.

Lockheed officials said they're telling furloughed employees to try to use vacation time so their pay and benefits continue.